The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-10-09
FIFTY Master Minds.

prompted the publication for school purposes
Of the book entitled Lights Of Too Centuries. by
E. E. HALE IA. 3. Barnes Coz The authors
aim was to present In compact form and
chronological sequence biographical and criti-
cal estimates Of the fifty men Of genius, in
Guiding prose writer's, poets. painters, sculp-
tors. composers, and inventors. who may, in
his Judgment. most fairly be described as the
master minds" or master spirits" Of the
last two centuries. As the task Of selection
is not only one Of obvious difficulty but
one about whose right discharge no two stu
dents would be likely to agree, 1t might
have been judicious for the author to confine
himself to simply naming the objects OF his
choice without Indicating in q preface the
grounds Of preference. Some OF the wisest
men who ever have sat upon the bench. have
deemed It prudent, while recording their de-
cisions with all the prolixity required by lucid
ity to set forth their reasons, II at ALL with the
utmost possible brevity. When Mr.. Hale FORE
goes the advantage suggested by their
example no seems to challenge our ac-
ceptance Of the principle on which his
selection has been made. He has. We are
told. inserted certain names In this list and
excluded others. because he regards the former
as, by comparison, master" intellects. We
can only understand him to mean either that
perhaps failed to leave behind them distinct
body of svowed disciples, they exerted a
world wide" and enduring influence. Only
on one ground or the other can any man be
credited with the exercise of mastery"
Whichever Of these definitions may be
adopted by the author. he would find 1t
difi1cult. we think. to Justify the admis-
sion Of Swift to q gallery Of prose
writer's from which Burke Is debarred, or the
allotment to Longfellow OF place In cluster
Of poets In which there is no room for Shelley
or for Keats. It Is strange. too. that the man
to whom we are indebted for the electric tele-
graph should not figure among inventors in q
List capacious enough to embrace the Mont
golfers to whom we do not directly owe any
thing except the perfectly useless fire balloon.
1t is also a little rash to take for granted in q
school manual that the credit for the inven-
ton Of the telephone can as yet be definitely
attributed to given individual.
These sketches are. OF course, Of very various
degrees Of merit according to the trend of the
authors studies before he undertook this piece
of bookmaking. Let US glance at two or three
OF them. The paper on Swift Is perhaps as
adequate as the space at the writer's disposal
permitted him to make 1t. although the only one
OF Swift's writings which is much read to-day
seems dismissed rather CURLY. when We look at
the stress laid on Swift's short and boisterous
career In London politics. which has left abso-
lutely no trace on succeeding generations.
The youthful reader will perhaps derive a
wrong impression from one statement on page
142 when Mr.. Hale says that. " The Wings on
this occasion 1.-THE death OF Queen Annel
under Sir Robert Walpole, came in to stay
twenty-seven years." No ono would guess from
these words that Walpole was In opposition
for at least four years. from 1717 to 1921.
In the estimate Of Addison. Mr.. Hale brings
out clearly the curious fact that the worldly
success attained by Addison in his life tims-a
success which. for man OF letters. was up to
that time incomparable-was almost wholly
due to poem and play. The Campaign {"
and Cato" which had q distinctly political
purpose and which, perhaps for that reason.
are now seldom read. Had he written only
tho Spectator" by which alone he Is remem-
bered. he would have led. like Steele, pre-
carious existence. So that, after all. 1t may be
said that, II Addison became Secretary OF
State. and married O Countess. it was as a
politician rather than as O man OF letters-just
as Bacon was indebted for his Chancellorship
and his successive peerages to his legal ac-
compllshments. and not at all to the author
ship OF the Essays" and the "Novum Or
ganum." or Addisons personal character.
Mr. Hale takes, rs he ought to take, much
less charitable view than did Thackeray, who
at times seems to have been blind to the
jealous, mean. and cowardly traits OF his favor
Ito lay preacher.
From the account Of voltaire. the young
reader might get an Incorrect conception OF the
comparative value Of the writer's works. Thus
while 1t Ia true that the " Henriade," when it
appeared, was considered by the world OF let
tara avtranrlfnarv nroHuptinn no ono who